New Singers

+ + + +
+ + + +
+ + + +
New singers  are always welcome to join us – read more

Event Organisers  – want us to sing for you? – read more
+ + + +
+ + + +
+ + + +

Thursday 15 October 2015

New Christmas Songs

Here are links to download pdf files and a piano recording for the two new Christmas songs that were introduced at the last Beechwood singing session.

Coppers' Christmas Song pdf

Coppers' Christmas Song piano recording mp3

Christmas Now Is Drawing Near At Hand pdf

Sunday 11 October 2015

Brighton Pub Carols

Lo - the musical star is rising in the east once more! Well, Brighton, anyway.

Indeed, the Brighton Pub Carols are with us again, as delivered by the Napier Quire, augmented by ourselves. Rehearsals start on Tuesday 10th November and run weekly until 8th December. We then take the results of our labours to pubs around Brighton in the days leading up to Christmas.

If you would like to become part of the quire for the festive season, you'll need to attend as many of the rehearsals and pub sessions as you can. The role of the quire is to lead the rest of the pub in song: there are some well-known carols, but we will also be singing several less familiar ones – or different tunes/versions. This is the most fun you will ever have singing carols and is coupled with a wonderful sense of cameraderie – perfect seasonal behaviour!

Practices will again be on Tuesday evenings at Dorset Gardens Methodist Church, Dorset Gardens, off St James's Street. 8.00pm – 10.00pm.. Doors open from 7.30pm.

The pub sessions will be announced on the blog in due course. Photos from last year are in the December 2014 news archive here and the facebook page is here – carols (words and some music) can be downloaded from there.

In the pubs we cheerful neighbours
Talk about our Christmas spree
Pause to spare a thought for all those
Not so fortunate as we
So the turkey and the pudding
Comes upon the tables then
And the alehouse door is opened
Let the poor folk enter in.

Merry Christmas!

Adrian F

Friday 9 October 2015

Singing at Slindon Apple Fair, Saturday 10th October 2015

Update 9th Oct: song 9 in the second set is now West Sussex Drinking Song

Parking is in the field behind the Village Hall / Forge Cafe / Village Shop.

Gather at latest 11.45hrs for 12.00 first performance.

First set:
  1. Country life
  2. On Sussex Hills
  3. West Sussex Drinking Song
  4. Nightingale
  5. Life of a Man
  6. Hard Times
  7. Dancing at Whitsun
  8. Fathom
  9. Rosebuds
  10. Thousands
  11. Jolly Good Song

Second set:
  1. Twankey Dillo
  2. On Sussex Hills
  3. Green grow the Laurel
  4. Old Adam
  5. Ale Glorious Ale
  6. Life of a Man
  7. Rosebuds
  8. Ebernoe Horn Fair
  9. West Sussex Drinking Song
  10. Sussex by the Sea
  11. Jolly Good Song

Monday 5 October 2015

Xtra Singing Session for Xmas Songs

PLEASE NOTE – Our Christmas preparations are under way!!

We will be having an EXTRA Singing Session at The Beechwood Hall Hotel in Worthing on Wednesday 28th October at 7.30 pm to work on (and enjoy singing) our ‘Christmas' songs in readiness for the seasonal performances we have planned for November (see the Diary Dates and Events pages for more details of these).

So, if you are going to be singing with us at these events, please do join us if you can on 28th October at the Beechwood.

Sunday 4 October 2015

A Celebration of Folklore in Sussex and the South Downs

Here's a message passed on from Julie T about the Celebration of Folklore in Sussex and the South Downs. We were unable to sing at this event as we didn't have enough singers, but two of our singers, Alan and Anne from Cotillion, will be performing here.

A Celebration of Folklore in Sussex and the South Downs
Saturday 31st October 2015, 2-4 pm
Cloisters, Bishop Otter Campus, University of Chichester, College Lane, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 6PE

The Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy is hosting a celebration of folklore in Sussex and the South Downs, with stories and songs, to celebrate our new illustrated map of local folklore created with the kind support of the South Downs National Park.

Dr Steve O’Brien will read ‘St Dunstan and the Devil’, Joanna Gilar will perform ‘The Witch of Ditchling’ and Cotillion will introduce the audience to a selection of Sussex folk songs for this special Hallowe’en event. With Special Guest of Honour Prof. Jacqueline Simpson, without whom the map would not have been created.

You can download the map of folklore for free here: www.chi.ac.uk/fairytalemap

Tickets £5/£3 concessions; free to University staff and students. Contact h.robbins@chi.ac.uk to reserve your ticket or for more information.

With thanks for your time,

Heather Robbins
Assistant at the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy

Southdowns Folk Festival, Bognor – 27th September 2015

Angela B

Peter B

All photos below thanks to Barbara S